DHS - Mutant Division

Session Four: Damned Mutants!

A Taste Of Our Own Medicine

15

JAN/12

The STRIKE team were sent to Hayden, Idaho to recruit a mutant named Jonathan James, suspected of being a very powerful cyberpath. DHS Recruiter Jeff Thompson, a nat, was assigned to accompany us to oversee his recruitment. This was occasioned by Agent Lance’s (in my estimation, willful) misunderstanding of the meaning of “recruitment.”

We flew to the nearest airfield and rented a van for the trip to Hayden. Satellite imagery showed no activity in the town for over a week. As we entered the area, Thompson began to show signs of mental influence—hallucinating about music and then falling into a sleep from which he could be awakened until we retreated out of the area. We left him behind with orders to notify DHS about the effect, which appeared to have no affect on mutants. Agent Harris instructed everyone on the team to remove the batteries from their cell phones, lest the rogue cyberpath use them to track or eavesdrop on us.

We stopped the van some blocks from the suspect’s home so we wouldn’t be heard approaching. We finished the trip on foot. Agents Harris and Lance were ambushed by a flying mutant (hereinafter “Banshee”) who could project powerful sonic effects. Agent Carlson remained undetected. Harris was briefly rendered unconscious, then played “dead” when Banshe landed and carried her around to the rear of the house. When Banshee left to retrieve Lance, Harris took Banshee’s form and briefly investigated the interior of the house. She spotted James in the kitchen, working with several laptops, under the apparent mental influence of a bow-wielding psychic (hereinafter “Bitch”).

Agent Carlson, meanwhile, ambushed and neutralized Banshee with his invisibility and super-karate attack. The STRIKE team conferred briefly. Then Carlson slipped into the house thru a window in another room. Agents Harris and Lance attacked from the rear, via the sliding glass door. Bitch responded with a mental attack that deafened and blinded everyone. Carlson retreated to a hallway, out of sight of the psychic, and soon regained his senses.

Harris and Lance were repeatedly assaulted mentally, remaining blind and deaf while they tried to escape and/or find and neutralize Bitch. Agent Harris found and took the form of James, then led him out of the house. This made it more difficult for Bitch to know which of them was Harris (as intended), but was not entirely successful.

Eventually, Carlson was able to ambush and neutralize Bitch while she was busy attacking Harris and James (Lance had moved out of her sight around a corner of the house). Agent Harris regrets that she lost her temper and kicked Bitch repeatedly in the ribs when she was down. She also slapped Agent Lance more than once for being too quick to employ his Flash Attack in close quarters, thereby blinding Agent Harris (and other team mates) in the process.

Upon our return to base, Agent Carlson was sent to mandatory sensitivity training. As the session was confidential, Agent Harris in unaware of what went on. It does, however, appear to have been remarkably effective in curbing Agent Carlson’s more obnoxious sexist behaviors.